I think the headline writer meant profligate — not promiscuous— but the point is clear nonetheless.
Agreed! They are both militarized police; it compliments this idea that the soldiers serving as guards on USA bases are called MPs (for Military Police).
This is so. And the only way to fix it is to pierce the immunity shield that the judiciary has fabricated from whole cloth.
Cops who obtain warrants on flimsy or fabricated representations need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.
Cops who execute no-knock warrants at the wrong address need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.
Judges who issue warrants on flimsy or fabricated representations need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.
No-knock warrants need to suffer strict scrutiny as to whether alternative means to accomplish the search or arrest could be employed. Again, with personal liability for both the cops and the issiung judge for use of excessive force.
The nascent totalitarian police state needs to be strangled.
Do SWAT members get paid more for their service?
I often hear of “a few bad cops” giving all the others a bad name. The question then becomes; “Why don’t the good cops, turn in the bad cops?” The only comparison, and I will be the first to admit that it is an unfair one, is to Islam.
We are always told of the radical 10% that are the trouble makers, but we never hear anything from the other 90%, that rebukes the actions of the minority.
Same holds true of police, no matter how poorly or illegally an officer has acted, his brothers and sisters in blue will NOT speak up against him.
Another impediment to cleaning up law enforcement is that when an officer is found guilty of misconduct, the tax payers and not the officer are on the hook for any costs. The officer may lose their job, but the tax payer foots the bill.
So what can we do to fix this situation? Well as my old First Sergeant used to say; “Don’t complain unless you have a solution to the problem.” Well here is my idea.
Any and all monetary damages awarded to a plaintiff as a result of the actions of law enforcement officers, are to ONLY come from the offending departments or organizations pension fund.
Only when it hits home personally by weakening every officers retirement, will the good ones begin to turn in the bad ones. In time, department phycologists and training officers will do a better job of weeding out the nut jobs. Senior staff will do a better job of triple checking addresses before conducting a “no-knock” late night call to a suspect’s home. Officers will advise their partners that a course of action is not advised, rather than just going along.
And once this has happened, law enforcement might begin to gain some of the mountain of trust and respect that they have lost in past few years.
Good post. Thank you.
Why is it that we never hear of SWAT teams raiding a residence in section 8 housing, or well-known gang hangouts ?
No Knock = No Daddy coming home!
Re: “The unseemly eagerness of many police officers to dress up and act like soldiers.”
In my town, east of Seattle, a cop with 10 years experience gets paid more than a first year Army major.
And, I’ll speculate that the average cop is engaged in violent hand-to-hand combat each year more often than the average Army major.